Carel Willink first studied medicine for a while and then architecture
in Delft. But he soon moved to the Hague, where he decided in
1919 that he wanted to be a painter. He studied in Berlin at
the Hans Baluschek's painting school and started out with expressionist
works. In 1923 he exhibited with the November Group at the Moabit
Glaspalast.

In 1924 he returned to Amsterdam and called
himself a futurist. In 1926 he married Mies van der Meulen,
but she left him in 1928. In 1931 he travelled through Italy
with his brother Jan. In 1931 he painted "Venus resting", with
Wilma Jeuken (b.1905) as the model. In 1934 he married Wilma.
In 1935 they moved to the Ruysdaelkade in Amsterdam, where Willink
lived until his death.

During the 1940s he painted
the portrait of a mr. Stakenburg and many portrait commissions
would follow over the years. In 1947 he stayed in Paris and
in 1951 he exhibitied at the Palais des Beaux Arts in Brussels.
In 1960 Wilma died and he travelled to Rome to escape from his
grief.

In 1969 he married Mathilda de Doelder, who
was a society figure and had lived with him since 1963 (when
she had been only 21 and he 60). He painted her naked three
times. Willink started affairs with the mannequin Andrťe Rupp
(1974) and sculptress Sylvia QuiŽl (1975) and after Mathilde
damaged the portrait he had done of Wilma in 1952 he threw her
out. Willink immediately started living together with QuiŽl.

On
May 19, 1977 Mathilde said on television that she would commit
suicide if the separation wouldn't be settled in a a way that
would be acceptable to her. When it became formal she received
135.000 guilders and started her own gallery in Amsterdam. She
also started an affair with car and coke dealer Gerard Vittali,
who found her death on her bed on October 25, 1977. She was
naked, had a gun in her hand and a bullet in her head. It was
unclear if she had been killed or had committed suicide. Willink
and QuiŽl didn't attend the funeral.

Willink married
Sylvia QuiŽl and she lived with him until his death in 1981.

Images

The grave of Carel Willink at Zorgvlied, Amsterdam.Picture by Androom (14 Jul 2005)